Arsenal fans turn on Xhaka despite Wenger comments

Arsenal fans have taken to social media to demand that Granit Xhaka pay the price for his recklessness in today’s Swansea win.

The summer signing did not have his best performance, being at fault for losing the ball to Gylfi Sigurdsson to score Swansea’s first goal, before failing to hit the target with a close range effort, and then he capped his display off by getting sent off.

The midfielder picked up a red card for a deliberate foul on the half-way line, with around 20 minutes left to play, just as his side had lost their two-goal advantage, putting his team-mates under increased pressure.

Arsene Wenger has already come out in the press to claim that the red card was harsh, describing the foul as a ‘dark yellow’, but the masses of Gunners fans clearly think differently.

There were a number of tweets highlighted by TalkSport, with some calling for him to be docked wages for his lack of discipline at such a crucial point in the match.

This anger is rather unusual considering that Arsenal still managed to hold onto the three points despite the Swiss international’s actions, although should Modou Barrow had to have been hauled off after the foul, the attitude could well have been different.

The Swansea star was terrorising Nacho Monreal down our left side for much of the match, and continue to do so following the red card, and should he have been taken out of the game permanently, our final 20 minutes may well have been less stressful.

I’m not condoning his actions, but he clearly intended to stop our opponents from breaking quickly, as he was simply too far from the ball not to get a straight red for his actions.

Does Xhaka deserve to be docked two weeks wages for his actions? Did he target Barrow specifically?

Pat J

Tags Arsenal Swansea Xhaka

22 Comments

  1. It’s a learning experience for him. I think everyone knows Xhaka will get red cards. The question wasn’t one of if but when. This is to the first of many!

  2. I don’t worry about his red card but what worries/worried was he looks lost sometimes . It’s like he does not know his role. The boy is talented but he needs to be more aware of the game. This is why I refused to buy into his hype when he scored a screamer. Testing times for him and he needs to up his game big time.

  3. 1st: That was never a red card.

    2nd: Turning against a new player is a completely stupid and self-destructive thing to do.

    3rd: I for one will be supporting Xhaka 100% – Arsenal will need him and I enjoy watching him play.

    1. I think what he want is to take a yellow for the team, stopping one of a potential dangerous counter from Swansea. Barrow is just too fast and he made a wrong judgement. He is frustrated after the mistake but it is not a malicious tackle, hopefully he got the red card revoked

    2. You are letting your love for Xhaka to stop you from seeing the obvious. In as much as the tackle deserved a yellow it was also worth a red card so the decision the referee took wasn’t completely harsh but fair to me. You could see Xhaka’s intention was to foul him and he was very far from the ball, all he(Xhaka) went for was Barows ‘s leg and he made look so obvious and deliberate. Mind you it’s a game of football not wrestling, all I ask is for Xhaka to be more disciplined.

      1. That could have been a move resulting to a third goal for Swansea, we need players like Xhaka who are willing to take one for the team

  4. I don’t know how Xhaka got that red when Theo got an elbow in the face and nothing happened…

    Worst performance on the pitch was from the ref.

  5. Guys in all fairness that deserved a red.. it was dangerous tackle and their best player had to limp off the pitch..
    but i believe he took it for the team.. he went for a yellow, but barrows was too fast for him..
    xhaka has beautiful passes in him and like someone said above, he looks lost and needs to be explained his contribution to the team.

    1. Nothing at all dangerous about it. He clipped his heel when it was in mid air to nudge it into his other leg, we’ve all done that, and had it done to us. It’s the safest way of taking an opponent down. If he had of scraped his studs on the back of him or caught him when his foot was standing then it would be dangerous. Anyone who’s played before has seen this hundreds of times. I think the ref didn’t like the way Xhaka just walked away without any fear of it being red, and also the fact he had to over extend himself to make the foul made it look worse, but Xhaka caught him cleanly so it’s a yellow in my book.

      1. us doing it in the park and xhaka doing it in a professional match is entirely different. xhaka clearly lunged for his feet, it was a late tackle..
        Had a swansea player done the same on one of our players, the tackle suddenly looks vicious.. i can understand that but all i am saying, a red card was not a harsh call.

  6. I don’t mind Arsenal picking up the occasional red- Although undesired it’s the repurcussion of having stronger and more determined players.

    I don’t mind if a player like Xhaka or Coq get a game ban for yellow cards – we’ve got great cover – so need to use it

    And despite he’s mistakes today- he also made some great passes (ball through to Ozil was a beauty), some great tackles

    He’ll be a great player for us, for years to come

  7. I’ve seen Arsenal players taking down like that many times, and because we are so deadly on the break it’s understood allot more, double standards. Alexis was taking down similar not long back, not sure which game it was but he was purposely stopped from breaking, not even sure if that dude got any card. Arsenal fans need to get a grip, if they’re not bouncing on the ceiling they’re face down on the floor with their head in the gutter.

  8. I hope if Coquelin gets a stupid red like Xhaka did you guys won’t complain? Cus I believe if it was Coquelin who got the red you guys would have reaped into him.

  9. OK for me yesterday Xhaka was a liability through and through. He cost us the first goal and went ahead to pick up a needless red card along the half line. Subsequently, in a game that was looking like a routine exercise, we had to hang on for dear life and scrape a win from a relegation fodder team. Its been weeks now Xhaka has been with us and he is yet to justify that £35 million price tag. I really hope he comes good but for now let Coquelin bench him. We don’t need his undisciplined play costing us games.

  10. how fickle fans can be,im pretty sure that some of the fans wanting xhaka to be disciplined for his red card are the same ones that not so long ago were asking wenger to play him instead of coquelin,ok i was very p*ssed of with his red card but we got away with it this time and hopefully he,s going to learn from it don,t forget the guy is still young and learning coming to anyway montreal should have been subbed or gibbs introduced earlier,anyway great 3 pts and good to see we have the players to make an impact from the bench,COYG!!

  11. Isnt this exactly why we signed him? We needed steel in midfield and that is what we have. You shouldnt complain about getting cut on its sharp edges. In all fairness the only real mistake he made was the first goal. The red was an over reaction, you could see the ref just dying to make a point. It was a good game, but I feel prof should have made defebsive changes earlier. Perhaps even just after the 3rd goal.

  12. some fans are just fans, they don’t really know the game….

    any knowledgeable football fan should know Xhaka’s foul wasn’t a redcard offense, with simple knowledge of the rules.
    ….as a regular football follower players do that all the time and are even praised for ‘taking a Yellowcard for the team’
    the likes of Terry,Vidic,Ramos etc do that when their team is in similar position n get praised.
    …. had Xhaka not been at fault for the first goal of Swansea i’ll say he deserves the MOTM award as much as Walcott,Alexis

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors